Trump is recreating America's Syria dilemma — in Saudi Arabia

Why sending more troops to help protect Riyadh is a terrible idea

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Tom Pennington/Getty Images, REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed, Asya_mix/iStock)

Going to war in "the Middle East is the worst decision ever made in the history of our country!" President Trump tweeted last week. "Now we are slowly & carefully bringing our great soldiers & military home."

But are we? Just two days later, the Pentagon announced 1,800 additional U.S. troops will be deployed to "assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia," which, "with other deployments ... constitutes an additional 3,000 forces that have been extended or authorized within the last month." That's a major new commitment to Riyadh's security, and it brings the total new deployments in the region since May to 14,000. Meanwhile, even more American forces, including warships currently sailing the Pacific, may move to protect Saudi Arabia soon.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.